Laurin Blecha (Salzburg): Karl von Scherzers and Moritz von Wagners Writings on North America (1852–1853)
Moderation: Marianne Klemun
online-Veranstaltung unter:
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/66262941903?pwd=Z0I5R0F1VXVnVWJWOW1KNGhLMmVQUT09 [Meeting-ID: 662 6294 1903, Kenncode: 787244]
Abstract:
The aim of this lecture is to analyze selected texts of the Austrian researcher and diplomat Karl von Scherzer (1821–1903) and the German geographer Moritz Wagner (1813–1887), dealing with their travels to the Unites States of America from 1852 to 1853. Their texts are part of the extensive travel literature written in the mid-19th century when the United States attracted the interests of European travelers and scientists to document on the one side the successful development towards a modern nation state. On the other side they wanted to see and write about the “exotic” of the region’s nature and describe to the European audience of their encounters with indigenous communities. Thus, the present study is not about determining whether Scherzer and Wagner wrote “right” or “wrong” about the USA and its people, but rather, examines the perceptions and interpretations of the USA by two scholars and intellectuals from the former Habsburg Empire.
Zum Vortragenden:
Laurin Blecha has a Ph.D. in History form the University of Vienna. He is researcher at the Ibero-American Institute at the Metropolitan University Prague and lecturer at the Department of History and International Development (both University of Vienna). In 2015/16 he was guest researcher and fellow at the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin and Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar in the European Master in Global Studies Program at Ghent University in 2022. Recently he co-edited the book Múltiples facetas de las Independencias. La emancipación de América Central en su retrospective (DeGruyter) which will be published in fall 2023.